 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | April 30, 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA and IBA heavyweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Originally a 12-round unanimous decision (116–111, 116-111, 115–112) for Toney; overturned to a no contest after he failed a drug test | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Ruiz vs. James Toney was a professional boxing match contested on April 30, 2005, for the WBA heavyweight championship.
After Roy Jones, Jr. elected to return to fighting as a light heavyweight, an interim championship match was signed between former world champions Ruiz and Hasim Rahman. Ruiz won the fight, and after Jones decided not to return to the heavyweight division the WBA promoted him to full champion; Ruiz joined the list of fighters to have regained a piece of the heavyweight title after previously losing it, which at the time consisted of him, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Tim Witherspoon, Muhammad Ali, and Floyd Patterson.
Ruiz made two defenses of his championship, defeating Fres Oquendo and getting a very controversial unanimous decision over Andrew Golota where most observers had Golota winning. [2]
Toney, the former middleweight and super middleweight world champion, had been fighting in the cruiserweight division for some time when he faced off against previously unbeaten Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight championship. Toney knocked down the four-year reigning champion in the final round en route to a unanimous decision victory, taking a major world title in a third weight class. Shortly thereafter, Toney moved up to heavyweight and took on Holyfield his debut in the class, scoring a knockdown in the ninth round and forcing Holyfield's corner to stop the fight. After trying to pursue a fight with Jones, who had handed Toney his first professional defeat, he elected instead to fight Ruiz after taking a tuneup against Rydell Booker, which he won in a lopsided unanimous decision. [3] [4]
Going in to the fight both the WBA & WBC ranked Toney as their number 1 contender, with the IBF ranking him 3rd. [5]
Toney was looking to join Jones and Bob Fitzsimmons as the only fighters to hold world championships at middleweight and heavyweight; he would be the first to do this without winning a major world title at light heavyweight first.
Toney would control most of fight, knocking Ruiz down in the 7th round on route to a unanimous decision win, with scores of 116–111, 116-111 and 115–112. [6] HBO's Harold Lederman also had the bout scored as 116–111 to Toney. Ruiz announced after the fight that he would be retiring.
Several days after the fight, it was revealed that in a post-fight urine test, the anabolic steroid nandrolone was detected in Toney's sample. The WBA responded by vacating the result of the fight, returning the title to Ruiz, and forbidding Toney to fight for its world championship for a minimum of two years. [7] In addition, Toney drew a suspension of 90 days from the New York State Athletic Commission and a fine of $10,000.
Reinstated as champion, Ruiz rescinded his retirement. However, he did not stay champion for very much longer as in his next defense against Nikolai Valuev, Ruiz lost a majority decision. He would fight twice more in his career for the WBA world championship, losing a unanimous decision in a rematch with Valuev and getting knocked out by David Haye in what would prove to be his final fight in 2010.
Toney, meanwhile, would fight only once more for a major heavyweight championship. In 2006 he took on reigning WBC champion Hasim Rahman and fought him to a majority draw, with two of the three judges scoring the bout even. He would go on to continue fighting until 2017, including a return to the cruiserweight division where he attempted to win the WBA championship (unsuccessfully), winning several fringe world championships along the way.
Confirmed bouts: [8]
| Winner | Loser | Weight division/title belt(s) disputed | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
 Vicente Mosquera |  Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai | WBA World super feather title | Unanimous Decision. |
 Ray Austin | Larry Donald | vacant WBC–USNBC heavyweight title | Majority Decision Draw. |
| DaVarryl Williamson | Derrick Jefferson | WBC Continental Americas/WBO NABO Heavyweight titles | 2nd-round TKO. |
| Non-TV bouts | |||
 Luis Alberto Pérez |  Luis Bolano | IBF World super flyweight title | 6th-round TKO. |
 Evans Ashira | Quentin Smith | Middleweight (10 rounds) | Unanimous Decision. |
 Israel Garcia |  Andriy Oliynyk | Heavyweight (6 rounds) | Unanimous Decision. |
 Elio Rojas | Anthony Martinez | Featherweight (6 rounds) | Unanimous Decision. |
| Oleksandr Harashchenko |  Elvir Muriqi | Light Heavyweight (6 rounds) | Split Decision. |
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 Canada | TSN |
 France | Canal+ |
 Philippines | Solar Sports |
 United Kingdom | Sky Sports |
| United States | HBO |
John Ruiz is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2010, and held the WBA heavyweight title twice between 2001 and 2005. Ruiz is of Puerto Rican descent, and is the first Latino boxer to win a world heavyweight title.
Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion in the cruiserweight division in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and was the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the "three-belt era", a feat later surpassed by Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk, who became two-weight undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
Hasim Sharif Rahman is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2014. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBC, IBF, IBO and lineal titles in 2001; and the WBC title again from 2005 to 2006. He was ranked as a top 10 heavyweight by BoxRec from 2000 to 2007, and reached his highest ranking of world No.6 in 2000.
James Nathaniel Toney is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and lineal middleweight titles from 1991 to 1993, the IBF super middleweight title from 1993 to 1994, and the IBF cruiserweight title in 2003. Toney also challenged twice for a world heavyweight title in 2005 and 2006, and was victorious the first time but was later stripped due to a failed drug test. Overall, he competed in fifteen world title fights across four weight classes.
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis, billed as Undisputed, was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF undisputed heavyweight championship.
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis II, billed as Unfinished Business, was a professional boxing match contested on November 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, IBF, and vacant IBO undisputed heavyweight championship.
Chris Byrd vs. Evander Holyfield was a professional boxing match contested on December 14, 2002 for the vacant IBF heavyweight championship.
John Ruiz vs. Roy Jones Jr., billed as Never Take A Heavyweight Lightly, was a professional boxing match contested on March 1, 2003 for the WBA heavyweight championship. The fight took place at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV in Paradise, Nevada.
Nikolai Valuev vs. Evander Holyfield was a professional boxing match contested on 20 December 2008 for the WBA heavyweight championship.
Evander Holyfield vs. John Ruiz, billed as Justice, was a professional boxing match contested on August 12, 2000 for the vacant WBA heavyweight championship.
John Ruiz vs. Evander Holyfield III was a professional boxing match contested on December 15, 2001 for the WBA heavyweight championship. The fight ended in a split draw, a result that meant Ruiz retained his WBA title.
Chris Byrd vs. Wladimir Klitschko II, billed as "Revenge Is The Name Of The Game", was a professional boxing match contested on 22 April 2006 for the IBF and vacant IBO heavyweight championship.
Wladimir Klitschko vs. Hasim Rahman, billed as "X-Plosive", was a professional boxing match contested on 13 December 2008 for the IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight championship.
Nikolai Valuev vs. David Haye, billed as David vs Goliath, was a professional boxing match contested on 7 November 2009 for the WBA heavyweight championship.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi vs. Evander Holyfield, billed as "Pandemonium" was a professional boxing match contested on July 12, 1986 for the WBA Junior Heavyweight championship.
Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney, billed as "The War on October 4", was a professional boxing match contested on October 4, 2003.
Chris Byrd vs. Andrew Golota, billed as "The Next Era Of Heavyweights", was a professional boxing match contested on April 17, 2004, for the IBF Heavyweight championship.
John Ruiz vs. Andrew Golota, billed as Struggle For Supremacy (Night of the Heavyweights), was a professional boxing match contested on November 13, 2004, for the WBA Heavyweight championship.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)